Chapter 2: Ishir

I watch as my mate flies away, and I see when she turns to look at me as she’s leaving.

“Yeah, that’s right, you’ll remember tonight,” I say quietly to myself.

I knew instantly that Zephyr was my mate when she landed in Cedric and Tana’s pack lands three months ago. I have one of the best noses in the shifter community, which is saying a lot about how good my nose is. And saying that, I knew I had smelled her in the last arena we took down, but there were so many shifters, so much chaos, that I could never pinpoint where the scent was coming from.

Then, she ignored me. Ignored our mate bond. I’m friends with Tana and with Avani, so I know how a dragon feels when they find their mate. Well, any dragon other than Kaylani who doesn’t seem bothered by finding her mate. But Zephyr is more like Tana and Cedric. She will fight the mate bond. Fight being claimed by me. But I’ve been waiting for my mate for decades, and I have no intention of letting her go.

So, I searched for her. In between hunting the Chief, a man who had experimented on Tana, her unborn son, Merethyl, Avani’s mate, and Merethyl’s brother, Yhendorn, as well as countless other shifters. He had been trying to create an army of shifters to basically take over the world, but he’s dead now. After that, I was searching for the laboratory-created dragons that the Chief not only made, but then added an explosive into their brains to kill them if they didn’t go along with his demands. When I wasn’t searching with Avani, Merethyl, Kaylani and our new doctor that I brought on board, Everett, I searched for my mate.

It took me several weeks to find her. When I did, I didn’t want to go to her. She has a new son, one that I know is Avani’s. I don’t like it, but I also know that he’s a mated and claimed dragon now, so whatever was between them is over. I’ve been around dragons for years, but never a new mother, so I opted to be safe and call her to come to me. Dragons have an amazing sense of hearing, and I can only imagine that it’s stronger when it’s your mate that is calling for you.

So, I waited, patiently at first, then very impatiently when she didn’t come to me week after week. I began contemplating going to her, when she finally answered my call.

Since she’s a dragon, she has the inherent need to be dominant, as all dragons do. I wasn’t having it. She needed to know that I, her mate, am powerful enough to dominate her, a dragon, that I am more than worthy of being her mate. Not only that, but I also wanted her to know that I could make her feel things that no one else, including Avani, has ever made her feel. I wanted her to WANT to come to me the next time I called her.

It was two days after I watched her fly away that I got Avani’s call letting me know that Ancalagon was missing. I gave him the information that I had on possible hunter facilities, then I began my own search. This is what I do, it’s what I’ve always done. I search for the missing.

Usually, it’s missing shifters that I search for, and that has kept me busy since I escaped from the Arena with Cedric and Tana. There have been more Arenas built to continue the supernatural fighting ring that the humans seem to love.

But, I also work with the humans to find their missing, usually their children. That’s where I make most of my money. Humans are willing to pay a lot to get their kids back. Shifters just expect you to find them.

I begin searching in all of the laboratories that I know about. When Avani gave Hudson to me, one of the rare scientists that Avani left alive, I had no idea that he would give me so much intel. Not only that, he introduced me to his brother, Everett. Everett has become the doctor that is saving the dragons, as best as he and Kaylani can, at least.

However, Hudson had information on some of the hunters lairs and the scientists laboratories. I had gathered as much intel from him as I could before returning him to his family. They had been held captive by the Chief. I found them and returned them to him. It was the only reason that he was helping the Chief and when I saw the poor state that his family was in, I knew he was telling the truth.

I gave Avani several of the laboratories to search, and I kept some for myself. When I get to the first one, they smell as they all do of blood, fear, and death. I set that aside and begin searching through the information, trying to find where they are keeping Zephyr’s son.

I check out two more laboratories before deciding that I need to check with Zephyr. We aren’t finding Ancalagon as quickly as I expected and she must be beside herself with grief.

I race to the mountain where she was living, but all I smell is death. I run to her den, finding her scent fainter than I expected. When I sniff around, I smell the mountain goat shifters that died here. I assume that they died protecting Ancalagon. If Zephyr wasn’t feeling bad enough about the loss of her son, I know, as a dragon, she’ll be feeling the guilt over the loss of these shifters.

I climb on top of her den, using my powerful nose to sniff the air around us. While the mountain tops are constantly covered in snow, my mate smells like freshly fallen show. It take me some time, but I finally catch a whiff of her scent, off in the distance.

I race down the mountain, running as fast as my four paws will take me to get to her. I don’t know if she’ll accept my comfort, but I know I have to try. She’s my mate. I should be here consoling her.

When I get closer, I hear it, her dragon’s lament. The sound is so sad, so awful that I feel tears begin to trek down my face. I don’t let it stop me. I force myself up the mountain, the horrible depression of her sadness weighing heavier on me with each step that I take.

When I finally get to the top of the mountain, I see her in her dragon form, her head lifted to the sky as she laments. I shift, my tears still streaking down my face.

“Zephyr,” I call softly, taking slow steps toward her.

Her giant head turns toward me and as I watch, her eyes turn red with anger. I know instantly that she blames me for taking her away from Ancalagon. If she hadn’t come to me, the hunters couldn’t have gotten to him.

“Zephyr, I’m here to help. I can help you find Ancalagon,” I say to her, watching as she returns to her lament.

I slowly walk to her, putting my hand on her surprisingly warm scaly body. I gently caress her neck, moving around to look up at her.

“Let me help you, my mate,” I say to her.

It’s the wrong thing to say. She screams her anger at me, swinging her head down at me, and slamming it against my body, sending me flying into the air. I shift, knowing I have a better chance of surviving this fall in my tiger form. A cat always lands on its feet after all.

When I finally hit the ground, the impact reverberates through my body, making me snarl with the pain. I look up, ready to go back to her, to fight her if I need to, but she’s already gone.

I watch her opal white scales glinting in the moonlight as she flies off, still crying her lament to the moon, the sky and anyone that will listen.